Black Pepper?

I love fresh ground black pepper, and would be interested in working it in to a recipe. So far I'm still doing extract/sp. grain brews. Two questions:

1. How exactly should it be added? During the boil? During primary, secondary? Whole peppercorns or coarsely ground?

2. What type of beer styles might this work with? Something strong like a porter that can keep up with the pepper flavor, or something lighter that would let the pepper show through?

Thanks!

I don't know how well it would go with a beer... but spiced meads (methegens) seem to do quite well.

I have toyed with the idea of doing a caper or peppercorn (dried caper) methegen.

If I did it, I would probably add about 5 to 10 capers per gallon of a reasonably dry mead... to let the pepper flavor shine. (just a guess on quantity, based on allspice recipes I have seen).

I would probably add them at secondary.

Radical Brewing by Mosher has a Black Pepper Porter, although I haven't tried it. The pepper is added at the end of the boil and to the cooled wort.

"Notes of the pepper could be picked up, but the pepper heat was masked by the high BUs, and the aroma by the hop fragrance."

Black peppercorns add a very interesting flavor...not exactly like what pepper on your food tastes like but I guess I would describe it as an earthy spice w/ a bit of zing behind it. Some saison recipes (and a few other belgians I've seen) call for black peppercorns. Dieu Du Ciel has a beer w/ rye and green and black peppercorns that's mighty tasty.

I just did a Black Peppercorn Rye IPA that I added .5 ounce of course crushed corns to the last 10 minutes of the boil. At that quantity, the flavor is pretty aggressive and rather spicy. I dig it but I could see others being turned off by it. If you want to experiment, I would consider keeping the quantity low at first.

That peppercorn rye pa sounds pretty good brewt00l. The spiciness of the rye and peppercorn must complement each other pretty good. Doylestown, huh? Any chance of that showing up at the Keystone Family Picnic this summer?

Add whole pepper corns to the primary or secondary. You can also use grains of paradise if you want a more subtle peppery flavor.

Personally i love a beer with some peppery flavor. Saisons typically have this but it is due to the yeast only and no pepper corns or grains of paradise are used.

Look at BierMuncher's "Sterling Gold" reciepe, it uses black peppercorns. I brewed something last weekend based on that recipe, but using Grains of Paradise instead. Get your hands on some GoP if you can; they've got a wonderful aroma, very fruity/citrusy alongside their peppery-ness.

Check out my Sterling Gold recipe. It is a very light crispy ale with coriander, orange peel and freshly crushed black pepper.

Nothing too noticeable, but very light and zesty.

BierMuncher said:

Check out my Sterling Gold recipe. It is a very light crispy ale with coriander, orange peel and freshly crushed black pepper.

Nothing too noticeable, but very light and zesty.

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That recipe looks very tasty. I like beers such as Belgian Wits that feature the coriander and orange flavors. UncleFluffy's PM conversion is still a little beyond me. Anyone able to convert to extract with specialty grains?

Thanks for all the input.

We're making a Saison tomorrow that has whole black peppercorns in it. The recipe is from someone on HBT but I don't know who - Mr Febtober got the recipe for us (I've been dying for some Saison!)

Jamo99 said:

That peppercorn rye pa sounds pretty good brewt00l. The spiciness of the rye and peppercorn must complement each other pretty good. Doylestown, huh? Any chance of that showing up at the Keystone Family Picnic this summer?

Click to expand...

Quite possible! I was going to go to the big brewout the other weekend but wound up having to work. I was in Keystone yesterday as a matter o fact!

As for the Rye IPA, I'm thinking I could use this kit:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_42_167&products_id=351

and just introduce the peppercorns during the last 10 minutes of the boil and keep everything else the same. Maybe dry hop as well (although the description does say it's "aggressively hopped")?

BrewWench said:

We're making a Saison tomorrow that has whole black peppercorns in it. The recipe is from someone on HBT but I don't know who - Mr Febtober got the recipe for us (I've been dying for some Saison!)

Click to expand...

It was O Flannagain's Se La Saison that we started with, with a number of recipe mods, though. I'm hoping the peppercorns add a nice subtle spiceyness.

A saison should get a fair amount of spicyness just from the yeast.

You could try a belgian wit, and use grapefruit/lemon peel, and replace the coriander with a little black pepercorn. Its an interesting taste.

I'm actually getting ready to start an Acerglyn Tomorrow with black pepper, coriander, coffee, orange peel, and ancho chiles. I've been looking for a clear idea of how much of the black pepper and ancho I should be adding and whether to do it during first or second ferment. Anyone have ideas?